The Old Norse alphabet, based on modern standardized spelling, consisted of letters such as a, b, c, d, ð, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z, þ, ǫ, and œ. It was based on the more modern “standardized” spelling, as older texts in most languages lacked unified spelling standards. Words beginning with the letter J were referred to as ð (capital: Ð), pronounced as a voiced /th/, similar to English words like ‘that’ or ‘though’. Before j became differentiated from i, the “J” sound could be spelled with g in various combinations.
The Old Norse language had two consonant characters: ð (capital: Ð) and æ (capital: Ð). The “J” sound could be spelled with g in various combinations before being differentiated from i. In ancient times, the names of Viking ship terms and Viking runes were written in both Runic and Latin alphabets.
The orthography of the Old Norse language was diverse, written in both Runic and Latin alphabets, with many spelling conventions, variant letterforms, and unique letters. Consonants like j, year, k, x, call loch, l, leaf leaf, and ll sound like tl nn when following a long vowel or diphthong.
In Old Norse, i/j adjacent to i, e, their u-umlauts, and æ was not possible, nor u/v adjacent to u, o, their i-umlauts, and ǫ. J was a variant of I until the 17th century, typically used when it was the last letter of a word. However, the letter j does not normally appear in front of i or y, except in a few words.
📹 What Old Norse Sounded Like
Jackson Crawford, Ph.D.: Sharing real expertise in Norse language and myth with people hungry to learn, free of both ivory tower …
📹 Norse Mythology Pronunciation differences! Thor was not his REAL NAME!
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Most people who talk about Old Norse will just pronounce it like the Icelandic of today, whereas I use a well-supported reconstructed pronunciation based on texts written in the 1100s-1200s A.D. This means I pronounce the letter Á to rhyme with “caw,” not with “cow,” among many other differences from Modern Icelandic. I also distinguish certain vowels, such as Ǿ vs. Æ, that are no longer distinguished in Modern Icelandic. These are informed choices, not just mangled Icelandic.
It would be amazing if you could help Duolingo make an Old West Norse language course. Volunteers are working on an Icelandic one now. But man, having one in Old West Norse would be so very special. Just found your website and I’m really happy I did. Edit: Nevermind – I thought Duolingo volunteers were working on an icelandic course but they aren’t, and I don’t know how I ended up with that misinformation. My mistake.
I think it’s amazing that we know so much about how Norse actually sounded like even though it’s an extinct language, especially since it’s still relevant today – from the days of week to popular culture – thanks for all your hard work in this field, and these wonderful articles Dr Crawford – very much appreciated and valued – thank you 🙂
As a Dane with Danish genealogy dating back further than the Vikings and as a person with a general interest in both history and religion/mythology I am so happy to have stumbled upon this website. To hear the language my ancestors would have spoken so precise and well studied while actually only understanding the most common names (like Hugin and Munin) is both weird and fascinating at the same time. Thank you for trying to close the gap while also preserving our ancient language ! 🙂
thank Odin for you. I am a 31 year old man from New Orleans and always hated regular school systems but craved learning. as a young man I would skip school and go to Barnes and noble to read history and poetry. Recently I have lost both parents and in an attempt to discover myself and figure out how I came to be, I’ve tried to learn anything I can to educate myself about my ancestry. my father is from Honduras and was raised around that side of family. but we only recently learned my mother was of Icelandic and Norwegian decent with a little Irish, danish and French. I have become consumed with trying to learn about these cultures. And you are doing a massive kindness in sharing your knowledge thank you sir. Skal!
My beard braids are standing on end. To actually here the voices of my ancestors spoken aloud after 1000 years is awesome. I’ve actually tried two different DNA test kits to be a little more sure and they both come back as predominantly Scandinavian. One says 76% and the other 80%. When I was born I was completely blonde with blue eyes but as I got older my hair darkened to reddish brown. My last name is Barney which is the anglisied version of Bjarne or Bjarni. I just maybe a remote decedent of Bjarni Herjolfsson who was most likely the first European to sight North America. I’m Canadian and one of these days I really have to get out to Labrador to see the Viking settlement.
I greatly appreciate your articles, and the information you share. there is one issue I have with people speaking old languages like Latin, old Norse, old English and ancient Greek. it always sounds as though they are giving a formal speech. it’s just like my mandarin teacher told me “it’s too perfect”. it’s not how people would actually talk. each person has there own minor “imperfections”, that make their speech flow in a natural way.
These poems compared to modern Swedish With regards to the words not being modern Swedish word order in all places, but the form of the poem. And some words might seem to be spelled very differently, but the pronunciation is very similar. nr 77 in Swedish would be: Dör fä Dör vänner Dör själv av det samma Och det som aldrig dör: domen över alla döda Where the letter “ö” in Swedish has the same pronunciation as the first part of “ey” and the letter “ä” has the same pronunciation as both “é” and “æ”. deyr = dö fé = fä (exactly the same pronunciation) sjálfr = själv sama = samma aldri = aldrig (normally pronounced with the g silent) dómr = domen The word “frændr” is still used in Swedish “frände” as more of a metafor for someone who is equal minded to you, on your side, a close ally. 138 just a few words veit = vet vindga = vindsvept nætr = nätter níu = nio rotum = rot (singular) rötter (plural) upp = upp Number 15 barn = barn (not son anymore, but means child/children) glad = glad (happy, cheerful, glad) hverr = var, varje sinn = sin nr 20 in Swedish would be: Hugin och Munin flyger varje dag över hela jorden Jag är orolig för Hugin att han inte kommer tillbaka, men jag är mer orolig för Munin. With the words that are or almost are the same ok = och (same pronunciation) Munin – Minne (memory) fljúga = flyga hverjan = varje dag = dag jormungrund = “jord” means soil, “grund” has a lot of meanings but foundation is one of them and basic, “jorden” means earth yfir = över at = att hann = han komi-t = kommer – in the tense used in the poem but in another form “has come” it is “kommit”.
Just wanted to thank you for your final comment about the lack of resources. My interest stems from a general interest in languages and linguistics, and from time to time, have tried delving into Norse but even if I manage to find a resource it is so inadequate that I am left with more questions than answers it can provide. I stumbled across your website purely by chance only a couple of days ago, but been totally absorbed by your content. I have found out more in these two days than I have in the last decade, giving me a way into your fascinating subject.
Thank you for such an interesting presentation. Love the background. On my own, I chose to study the old ways that they used to speak English about 500 to 700 years ago. I wanted a friend of mine and I to speak it to each other, but she always answered me in modern English. I wish there was somebody here in Memphis Tennessee who had an interest in speaking this language. What you were speaking in this article sounded a lot like the old English I was attempting to learn. Thanks again, and have a great day.
Strangely, as a Swedish person I understood a lot of that! Especially the last one about Hugin and Munin! It’s so interesting because it feels like I can connect to it more. We don’t actually hear a lot about the old norse culture in Scandinavia because so much of it has been lost. Thank you for making this! Feels good to be connecting to my countries history a bit❤
Jackson, þuldir þú upp úr Hávamálum eftir minni? Ef svo var, þykir mér þú ansi minnugur! Vel af sér vikið! A very direct translation of the Icelandic text: Dr. Crawford, recited you up out of Hávamál after memory? If so was, thinks me you quite memorizing! Well done! A translation into more natural sounding English: Dr. Crawford, did you recite from Hávamál by memory? If so, I think you have quite the memory! Well done! Takk fyrir þetta!/Thanks for this!
From New Mexico, my family appreciates your translations. We have been studying old Icelandic and Old Norse for some time now. My children are 8 yrs (dóttir) and my twins are 14yrs (sonur ok dóttir). Half Native and Half Scandinavian. Thanks to your gift, my children have even more confidence speaking their Grandfather’s language. Again, þakka þér fyrir vinur mín Jackson. Takk!
Something that strikes me as a student of Danish is that you are speaking at a very slow and precise pace. While I am sure this is partly to emphasize the sounds for us, it gave me pause for thought. I am curious if native speakers would have spoken in a similar manner or if there would have been more “blurring” of words in phrase and swallowing of sounds, more akin to modern Danish, in particular.
2 Questions to Dr. Jackson Crawford 1) I am having difficulty knowing when I am suppose to use Ø and ǫ when writing in old Norse. I am Icelandic so the two have become ö as you have mentioned. I have watched all of your articles and understand that ǫ sounds like c”o”ffee and the other like b”i”rd but I don’t know in what words those pronunciations go since they are all ö in Icelandic 2) This problem get’s worse when I start writing in runes. You said in your article that “ár” always represents ǫ and “úr” represents Ø but I have seen you use “úr” to write ǫ (like in ᚠᛁᚢᛚᚴᚢᚾᛁᚴᛦᛅ) Can you please help me understand when to use Ø and ǫ when writing in the roman alphabet and in runes? Thank you!
I look forward to the day where students might be able to learn Old Norse just as easily as many today learn Latin. Although question: which of the Scandinavian languages have had the most books published on research of this subject? I’d love to be able to read these books in their original language if needed, just in case they can’t be found in English. Thanks for your work, Dr. Crawford! You have no idea how helpful it is for people new to the Norse Pagan faith!
I accept that these are the linguists’ findings but I wonder, wouldn’t people skew the pronountiation according to their own comfort and create dialects and accents just like they do now? Especially hearing how unnatural some words sound and there being a possibility to pronounce them more easily when prouncing them a bit ‘incorrectly’ or negligently. Just a thought, love you vids, professor, Greetings from the Czech republic
as an swedish unproffessional nerd in linguistics and equally interested in history i havet to till you that youre version of the old nordic dialects and your penounciation is probably by far the most accurate. more accurate than the attempts of nordic bred historians and linguistics. this just feels rigt to me as it remiss me of hon old People in rutan sweden spoke when i was a kid
I’ve always been fascinated by Norse myth and culture but the most I’ve been able to find outside of random corners of the internet is “Myths of the Norsemen” from Puffin Classics. Being someone who loves to study culture, and being of Eastern/Northern European descent, that lack of readily available information has always bothered me. YouTube randomly recommended your website to me, I guess because I’ve listened to music websites like Danheim, and I’m happy that it did. I’ll be perusal your articles a lot this summer so thanks in advance for all of it
2 years ago in Italy in the evening I fell from a mountain and was saved by a tree. But I had to eventually let myself fall from that tree to a narrow platform, because hanging in it twisted my limbs to much. Was only found after 6 hours without food and water, dislocated limbs and a cut eye (and I still have a scar). Havasmal 138-139 reminds me of that night.
🔨🎩🚬🍻💛 Right on brother! Makes ya realize even more of how we do not have the right letters in english to spell the words we say. Even more of a cripple in the way of growing our language, and another mystification is not having proper letters. Along with lack of knowing the meaning in prefixes and suffixes and the way to form them in multitudes. Very strong presentations on how many of us likely spoke not that long ago. We havent lost it. And as the dream goes we will use this latest we have spoken to grow our first. Not far from now.
I saw your reaction articles on God of War article games and I thought to myself, what a nit picking guy. He clearly doesnt understand article games. And you do not. Then one article of yours got recommended to me and nownI understand your passion for languages and Norse culture. Plus the fact, pointed out by many, that there is a cowboy teaching people on YT about Norse languages is pretty hilarious. Another great article!
Hello Jackson, I am, since a few years now, I am very interested in vikings. And, as you teach Old Norse, you have learnt it somewhere. Do you know any way for me as a french to learn Old Norse, a book, a website, or something? Because I really like your articles, but I would really like to go deeper into this language, as I will probably soon begin to reenact the viking age, speaking old norse would set me a bit further in the realism, and as a musicien, I would like to do a Skald, and I would actually like to compose in Old Norse, or at least try to do so. Best regards and thanks for the knowledge that you spread among the Internet.
interesting to see the similarities between this language and my language (Afrikaans) phonetically. Of course like 95% of the words are way different, but I can hear the roots of the words in my languages in these old Norse ones. Like “ek” in this case from what I can observe is exactly the same as in Afrikaans (just simply means “I” as in “I am…). Also, from stanza 139 the part which reads “nam ek upp runar” is soooo close to what it would be in Afrikaans. If I just translate it directly it would be “neem ek op runes”, but in modern Afrikaans it would be “(het) ek die runes opgeneem”. Well, it’s not 100% similar, but as a native Afrikaans speaker I just find it interesting how the sounds are similar in a way and how there are some words that have basically remained the same
I didn’t know my ancestry until a few years ago. It was just something never talked about. The answer was always well god just made you that way, or made you with red hair or that accent. I’ve had so much hidden from me and I’m just now discovering my Scandinavian roots. Bands like hielung and wadruna, etc make me cry. I dont know what they are seeing but I feel a primal pull
The ð sound in Old Norse (and maybe it’s the same in Icelandic?) In Danish, there is a similar sound, but I always thought that it was the same sound. In Danish, it sounds pretty much like the th in the English word “then”, but in Old Norse, it sounds closer to the th in thorn (þ).It’s a much softer sound
Icelandic is the closest modern language to old norse. Icelanders can still read old norse and understand it easily. I fact, we wouldn’t have any of the writing, sagas, stories or anything of our norse ancestry of not for the volumes of writing done by the Icelanders! The Scandinavian tribes didn’t continue the stories for very long; it seems they were much focused on land, trade, etc. Whereas Icelandic people had their land and were far more settled to dwell there & preserve the tales & language for their people. I am a direct ancestor and am ever so thankful to my kinsmen. Skál! ♥️
Sounds to me that the language has what sounds like an intermediate between the ‘th’ and ‘d’ sounds like one finds in English (represented by that curved d letter). Also in the last poem about the ravens is the word Jormungrund used to mean the whole world? When I saw the line I just assumed they were flying over the serpent.
Sir. You are expert. I believed for long time that Norse myths were based on real people…although I realized stories could be mixed up…..You and another guy…Scott something…are experts in norse myth/legend…My question is…..IF the characters were real…Probably their homeland was real also…SO! Where is ASGARD?. Is it Arhus..in Denmark? or somewhere in some other lost site….like the Caucasus? or Romania?..I have heard both of these…Thanks
Being icelandic this sounds pretty close to modern icelandic. And it’s also not so diffcult to understand the text for the modern icelander although poem is more difficult to understand then the sagas which is very easy to read. Icelandic has changed so little that this is possible. What will happen to the icelandic language the next decades is on the other hand difficult to predict. Maybe we will lose this direct access to the old texts I’m sorry to say.
I think to get a better understanding of how old norse sounded like, we’d have to go away from the poetic way of saying things. This way also seems very slow, and the article better describes the sounds contained within the language, and not as much how it sounded like as a whole. I’d love to get some more examples of how it might’ve sounded like on a daily basis.